Tamiya 1/72nd Spitfire Mk.I w/Eduard Zoom Photoetch and Masks By Matt Bittner

Introduction

No need to go into the history of the Spitfire. Google it and you can find plenty of information on the Internet. In addition, there are plenty of books out there on the subject as well.

Of all the "most common" modeled aircraft, I like the Spitfire the most. I definitely won't build the German ones, and only a few of the US (but all of the VVS); however, I have plenty of Spitfire models in my stash to keep me busy over the years. Be that as it may, I still have yet to pick up any reference material on the type. I guess I'm not as anal about the Spitfire as I am about most WW1 aircraft.

I've heard there are shape issues with the Tamiya version of the Mk.I, and the only truly accurate kit in 1/72nd of the Mk.I is the venerable Airfix release. However, the Airfix kit isn't up to "today's standards" and – while I haven't built it – probably isn't as easy to build as the Tamiya Mk.I. So, shape be damned, I'm going to build this model and enjoy it!

The Kit

The Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I is an excellent model. I can see what everyone is talking about when they refer to the ease of building a Tamiya kit. This is my first (since they have yet to release any WW1-types, or any GPW VVS aircraft) and it definitely won't be my last. In fact, I've collected aftermarket and decals to build their P-47 "Razorback" – my second favorite "most commonly built model".

Construction

Wow. In a way I wish all models were this easy to build. In a way, because I do enjoy a challenge (although those "challenging kits" take even longer for me to finish) but building something "quick and easy" is also a must whenever one is burned out on AMS. Tamiya kits fit this bill nicely.

I decided to acquire the Eduard Zoom photoetch set, just because I didn't want to go all out (with their "fuller" photoetch set) but I did want to add more to this kit. There isn't much needed, as it's a pretty complete kit out of the box, and the Zoom set fit the bill nicely. In addition, I was also given the Eduard masks in their new "Kabuki-tape" line. Nice.

Naturally construction starts with the cockpit and the Zoom set really brings it to life. It's nice to have most of the photoetch pieces pre-colored, but some may question the color Eduard selected as interior grey-green. In fact, it's not very green. Even so, I didn't change the color and selected to chalk it up to variation on the theme.

The pieces the Zoom set includes are a few pieces of the cockpit sides, but more importantly an extremely nice, pre-painted instrument panel (a "sandwich affair" made up of three different pieces), nicely pre-painted seat belts, a fold-up seat, and replacement rudder pedals. These items really set the cockpit off. I opted to cut off the kit door to show the photoetch door opened. There's definitely a difference in thickness, but I suspect that if I didn't mention this, you wouldn't have noticed.

Before adding the pre-painted photoetch pieces I painted the kit components using Polly Scale's British Interior Grey-Green. After initial painting, I did a preliminary oil wash using Burnt Sienna then added the pre-painted photoetch pieces. Over these I applied another oil wash, then carefully dry brushed the original Polly Scale color over kit parts.

Now that the cockpit is finished the fuselage halves can be assembled. The fit of this kit is so nice, I didn't need any seam filling, since I used liquid cement and squeezed the plastic bead out the seams. After sanding (which removed all traces of any seam) I re-added lost panel lines on the spine with the JLC Saw from UMM. A most wonderful tool for this type of application. (I also used the JLC Saw to separate the windscreen from the sliding canopy.) The nice thing about fuselage assembly is that the cockpit is slid into place from underneath, where the wing sits. So, be sure to follow the instructions and not forget this important step. (Also don't forget to add the pieces for the prop to the nose prior to gluing the fuselage halves together. Trust me on this.).

While the instruction sheet wants you to now add the clear pieces and exhaust, I definitely left off the exhausts until the very end of painting and construction, and the clear pieces I didn't add until right before painting.

Time to glue the upper wing pieces to the single one-piece wing underside, then fit the wing radiator to the wing. This is another area where the Zoom set is used. You cut off the rear-most piece and replace it with the photoetch piece after folding. In addition, there are two photoetch pieces to add to the part of the radiator molded into the wing, giving a nice representation of the radiator grills. I had a little bit of fit issues where the the radiator attached to the wing and a little bit of putty was needed. This was removed with the "finger nail polish remover" technique. I opted to keep off the other kit intake the instructions have you add until any and all seam work was accomplished after adding the wing to the fuselage.

It was part of the wing-to-fuselage seam that required putty. The area that needed work was where the wing attaches to the rear fuselage. On my kit one side didn't line up very well, and putty was needed to fair it in. On the plus side, though, I needed NO seam work on the wing-to-fuselage root on the upper side. A little bit of scraping with a knife and this area was taken care of. Nice!! That meant I lost NO scribed detail and didn't have to re-scribe anything in this area. One aspect of building WW1 Part 2 aircraft I despise.

Adding the clear pieces required a little bit of work. Remember that I separated the windscreen and the canopy. So, I glued on the windscreen first, and noticed there were some gaps to deal with. I tried as best I could, but still am not 100% pleased with the outcome. I could do better, and this is one area I'm still learning. (Remember, WW1 aircraft don't have this problem.) I also had to blend in the rear canopy but I think that went better. I did the blending on both the windscreen and the rear piece after applying the Eduard Masks since I wanted a level of protection from sanding. The newest Masks – made with "Kabuki tape" – are far superior to the vinyl Eduard was using in the past. The vinyl didn't like to stay put, but the new tape works like a charm and it's awesome having masks – especially for clear pieces – that you can peel off and stick, with no measuring or anything.

I decided now to "build" the landing gear. The last pieces found on the photoetch set are two tie-downs meant for the landing gear. Once those the photoetch was glued on, I was ready for painting.

Finishing

I finally decided to give Tamiya tape a try. I've been reluctant in the past because of how expensive it is when compared with "regular" masking tape. I can pick up a roll of masking tape for US$0.99, which will last a lot of models. On the other hand, a roll of Tamiya tape costs two- to three-times more than that, and comes with less tape. However, now that I've used it, I will use it sparingly in the future. I also decided to use it because of the Eduard Masks and how well those worked. Granted, I only used the Tamiya tape to mask the demarcation of the underside colors (as well as masking between the Sky and the Black) but that little bit proved that I would be using Tamiya tape in the future – albeit sparingly.

The Sky is Polly Scale's paint out of the bottle. However, the upper side colors were all Vallejo: Green Brown (879) for the Earth and Reflective Green (890) for the Dark Green. I'm not sure if these are 100% accurate, but to me they look good. Sometimes you just have to do that – buck accuracy and finish the model.

I decided to stick with a kit-supplied scheme. Stupid thing to do on my part, because I couldn't get the Tamiya decals to work as I normally work them and I'm still not happy with how the decals laid down. I found I could not use the Future method, for what reason I really don't know. Normally, using Future as a setting agent always worked for me in the past, but with Tamiya decals it just didn't. I also tried other setting solutions, like the Microscale system. What I finally found that worked best was just using water. Squeeze out as much water as possible – once they're in the correct place – and let dry. Once dry, I did go over them with Solvaset, which worked on most of the decals. Next time I build a Tamiya kit, I will be sure NOT to use the kit decals.

Another coat of Future over the decals and it was time to flow an oil wash into the panel lines. I used Raw Umber in the upper sides, and a mix of black-and-white on the undersides. Once dried I first sprayed a coat of Xtracrylix flat over the whole model, but I'm guessing I didn't thin it correctly, as it didn't come out very flat. So, I went back to my trusty Polly Scale Flat, and that worked like a charm. Once dried I then applied pastel chalks to certain areas for more weathering and applied paint chipping with a Prismacolor silver pencil.

Conclusion

I can see why everyone is enamored with Tamiya kits. Definitely easy to assemble and you can build it out of the box (minus the decals, in my opinion) without adding anything. Tamiya kits are definitely good ones to bust you out of perpetual AMS.

One thing I will definitely do next time, though. Hollow out the exhausts. With the ends painted only, they don't look as good as if they were hollowed out.

My thanks to Eduard for the Zoom photoetch and Masks.